Our Opinion: District 186 should share bus delay info with parents

Wednesday

Feb 19, 2014 at 1:06 AM

Few issues get parents wound up like calling off school because of the weather.

Deciding if and when it’s appropriate to call off classes because of winter weather conditions is an unenviable job for school superintendents and one that comes with no shortage of criticism and armchair quarterbacking.

Temperatures, wind chills, depth of snow, the presence of ice, road conditions and bus schedules all play a role in a superintendent’s decision whether to cancel school.

For the most part, area superintendents this winter have done a good job making the call based on the best information available to them at the time.

But there’s always room for improvement, and, locally, improvement greatly is needed where the buses are concerned.

District 186 interim superintendent Bob Hill at Monday night’s school board meeting said he regretted not canceling school Monday after he learned that students were stranded at bus stops around the city for long periods of time that morning — some as long as 45 minutes — in the sleet, freezing rain and wind.

The problem, Hill said, was that he had to make a decision about closing school by 5:30 a.m., prior to the ice and sleet settling over the city.

One parent, who waited at the bus stop with her children in the freezing rain for 30 minutes, urged the school board to find a way to quickly inform parents about bus schedules and delays.

School board members agreed to look at options, and they should.

In these days of instant communication, such text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, email, robo phone calls and media alerts — all of which District 186 already uses in various capacities to communicate with families — surely the school district or the bus company it contracts with can inform families of bus delays and schedule changes. There is no excuse for children and parents to be standing at a bus stop covered in ice and unsure if the bus ever will show up.

It’s been a particularly frustrating winter for Springfield-area families. Since Jan. 6, District 186 has canceled school six times for the weather. Mixed in with the weather days have been a variety of days off for holidays and teacher in-service days.

It’s understandable that parents’ nerves may be wearing thin. With every day out of school, they scramble to find child care or exhaust their personal days at work. The school year will be extended to make up for some of the closures, potentially affecting families’ summer plans. And there’s the daily struggle of keeping school-age children on something resembling a routine — a huge cog in the functionality of any family in 2014 — during closures. Frustrating, indeed.

Why add to their already heightened frustration by not providing clarity about bus schedules and delays?

District 186 long ago made a commitment that children should be able to safely trek to and from school — whether they’re walking, driving themselves, hitching a ride with Mom or Dad or riding a bus.

Now is a good time for District 186 to build on that commitment. The district dropped a major ball on Monday by allowing students to wait at bus stops for extended periods of time in the sleet and freezing rain, and now it has an opportunity to improve.

School officials should make use of available technology — for little, if any, additional cost — to keep parents in the loop about bus schedules year round and make life a little more certain for the families and students it serves.